


I keep digging myself deeper

by Stinobear



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:47:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22306669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stinobear/pseuds/Stinobear
Summary: Based on the following tumblr post:“Okay guys hear me out.A soulmate AU where you have a black stain where your soulmate is supposed to touch you for the first time and it turns to millions of colors once they do.[...]Someone having a very visible black palm on their cheek that they try to cover up because people will just know they will be slapped one day.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 3
Kudos: 159





	I keep digging myself deeper

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s the link to the tumblr post:
> 
> https://the-desperately-single-housewife.tumblr.com/post/155040836668/okay-guys-hear-me-out-a-soulmate-au-where-you

The thing about soulmates was that they were supposed to be perfect for you. So trust Tony to find a way to screw that up. Soul marks were large black stains on someone’s body which showed where their soulmate would first touch them. So, being the fuck up that he was, Tony’s stain was in the shape of a hand across his face. The first time Tony would meet his soulmate, they would slap him. 

And Tony probably wouldn’t blame them. He was volatile and pushy and a jerk. He was the king of billionaire assholes. He was sure that some people had only stopped themselves from slapping him in fear that they’d turn the black stain into a kaleidoscope of colours. And then they’d be stuck with him. Tony Stark. Someone’s soulmate.

Howard, of course, had no issue with slapping Tony around. Undermining him, hitting him across the face in the same spot as his mark, telling him that if Tony’s own soulmate couldn’t stand him, couldn’t love him, would hit him, then he could do it too. There was no point in treating Tony well when he was born a disgrace. Born to be unloved by his soulmate. And Tony internalized that. He started drinking, doing drugs, messing up as much as possible. There was no point in being good if his own soulmate wouldn’t love him.

Then Afghanistan happened. And Tony became better. He stopped being as much of an ass. He tried to be a better person. Someone deserving of a soulmate. He wanted a soulmate before he died. He’d already almost died. But it was too late, the mark stayed black and it stayed on his face. 

He started inviting slaps. During the interview with Pepper Potts, he told her to slap him. He only shrugged when nothing happened as her hand touched his face. She didn’t slap him. She simply placed her hand on his face over the mark. He wished she was his soulmate. She could have taught him to be gentle with himself. 

He did the same with Natalie Rushman. She slapped him. Hard. Then they fell into bed together. They weren’t soulmates but her lack of fear towards him, the fact that she was willing to slap him at all, send a thrill down his spine. So he took what she would give him. She couldn’t give him her heart but she could give him her body and maybe that was enough.

He let a stranger named Richard slap him across the face in a dirty bathroom stall in a dump of a bar. Richard wasn’t his soulmate but Tony still dropped to his knees, opening the man’s pants and pretending that it was enough.

It was never enough.

Steve Rogers was so repulsed when he met Tony in New York that he refused to touch him at all. Tony wasn’t surprised. Steve, with all his self-righteousness and arrogance, was still a better man than Tony could ever dream to be. And Tony dreamt of finally riling Steve up enough to get him to slap him and for his cheek to blossom with all the colours of the rainbow. 

One day they got into an argument so big that Steve punched a hole in the wall. He’d been so distraught over it that Tony knew he’d never hit Tony. Not even to find out if they were soulmates. 

Then Steve got hit with a spell that filled him with rage. The kind of rage that made everything turn red. The kind of rage that could make Steve slap Tony. And Steve ran off. Determined not to let his rage get the better of him. He returned two days later, no rage in his eyes.

Tony couldn’t help but be disappointed.

Steve managed to avoid touching Tony for ages. Even after they stopped hating each other. Even after they became friends. Steve has been uncomfortable with all physical contact. Bruce thought it had to do with him being from the 40s but then Bucky returned and all Steve could do was touch Bucky. 

So Tony started trying to rile Steve up again. It didn’t work. He was too happy now that Bucky was back.

Then Loki came back. Entered through a portal to another universe where they hadn’t defeated him and made Steve hallucinate. When he looked into Tony’s eyes, he didn’t see his friend. He didn’t see his teammate. He saw his enemies. All on Tony’s face. He saw Red Skull, he saw Pierce, he saw Loki, he saw Thanos and he backhanded Tony. Slapped him across the face. 

And Tony’s faced turned bright red, then pink, then orange, then blue. 

**Author's Note:**

> So I couldn’t add this coz I loved where this ended too much but I imagine Steve refused to touch Tony because he’d figured out that they were soulmates during the battle of New York. And he knew that he’d have to slap Tony and he couldn’t do that to his soulmate.
> 
> And Tony will laugh at him because Pepper has made him realize that he doesn’t actually have to be slapped. The only reason he still gets slapped is coz it’s his kink to get slapped. Some people like to be slapped during sex idk what to tell you.
> 
> Finally, in this one, Civil War was resolved much better and Bucky has a much smoother transition into the Avengers.


End file.
